The church was quiet; empty. The girl knelt in one of the pews, light passing through the stained glass windows painting her golden hair a variety of colours. Zelda spent every afternoon she could there in the church. It was built in a small suburb of Kyoto, just down the street of the secondary school she and her brother, Haru, went to. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, their older brother, Seth, coached Haru’s soccer team after having graduated as the school’s star player. On those days, the boys rode their bikes down to the church when they were finished to pick Zelda up. Mondays and Fridays, she was left to ride home on her own, and on Wednesdays, the debate team had practice. It was Tuesday.
She finished her prayers and sat back in the pew. Warm blue eyes settled on the curtained tabernacle behind the marble altar, and a smile lifted on her lips. As much as she loved her family and their home, this place always seemed to her to be the safest place in the world. She stood and stepped out into the aisle, knelt and bowed her head to the altar, then stood and turned to face the back of the church. Her gaze rose to the stained glass window over the entrance. It depicted an image of the Agony in the Garden, containing the namesake of the church, St. Gabriel.
Right on time, she heard the door to the church creak open. She bent down and lifted up her bookbag, cast one more glance at the tabernacle, and hurried to meet Haru.
“Ready?” he asked.
She smiled one of her disarming smiles and nodded, gold curls bobbing with the movement. “Yeah, let’s go,” she said cheerfully.
===
Azrael stood in the small but beautiful garden flanking the Hall of Judgement, his black wings fluttering in the gentle breeze that could never exist on Earth with four walls surrounding them. “Are You sure she’s ready?” he asked, even though he knew it was a stupid question. Of course He was sure.
Jesus chuckled softly. “She will be alright, Azrael. You needn’t worry about her.”
He sighed and gave a nod. “I understand. She is Raphael’s daughter; but she’s so young.”
“Not so young,” Mary said with an amused smile. “She has had far more training for this than I ever had for my task.” She sat on a bench beside her Son, and His hand rested on her shoulder, accompanied by an affectionate smile.
“She has a strong faith, as well,” Michael said, though he added with a frown, “Even if she is a Kolareny kid.”
Azrael couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You will never let it go, will you?”
Michael hmphed and folded his arms over his chest. “I can understand the Father using a sinner for good, but how He uses that woman goes beyond even our comprehension.”
“Faith, Michael,” Jesus chided. “Have faith in the Father, and in history. She has done a great deal for the better of the world, despite the Dark One’s sway over her from time to time.”
Mary lifted her hand to touch Jesus’ fingers, a faraway look in her eyes. “It’s nearly time.”
===
“Did you hear?” Haruka asked.
Zelda looked up from her textbook. It was the end of lunch, and there were still a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, only a handful of students in the classroom yet. “Hear what?” she replied curiously.
“Word is,” Haruka said as she pulled a chair up to Zelda’s desk, “there’s an escaped convict in the area.”
“Way out here?”
“Apparently he stole a car and made it out here, and now he’s hiding out.”
Zelda laughed lightly. “Uh-huh. And the elephants broke out of the zoo, right?”
“Hey!” Haruka frowned and sat back, arms crossed. “My sources are very reliable!”
She smiled and pulled a box of Pocky out from inside her desk and offered a stick to her. “Sorry, Haruka. It just seems unlikely.”
“All students report to the auditorium. All students-” the loudspeaker repeated a few times, Zelda and Haruka exchanging a glance.
“Do you think-“ Haruka started, but Zelda stopped her.
“Don’t say it. Just don’t.” They both stood up and started out into the quickly filling hallways. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, mostly asking each other what was going on. “I’ll meet you there, Haruka,” Zelda said and she slipped out of the stream of students. “Haru…” She turned and started back up the hallway. He was two years younger than her, and she always felt responsible for him. Whatever was going on, she wanted him close to her.
By the time she made it to the end of the hall and down the stairs, the flow of students was only a trickle. She asked everyone she passed if they’d seen Haru, but no one could tell her anything. She came to the end of the school and sighed softly. He was coming from this wing, so she should have passed him. Maybe they missed each other. For just a moment, worry struck her heart. Had he been taken? That thought left as quickly as it came and she laughed to herself for being so paranoid.
A sickly sweet-smelling cloth was pressed over her mouth, and before she could comprehend what was happening, the world went dark.
===
“What will you do?!” Rhia asked her son frantically.
“Whatever I can do!” Seth replied with fury.
She grabbed his arm, a pleading look in her eyes. “What can you do?”
He flinched, but wrenched his arm from her hand and stormed out of the house. His precious sister; he couldn’t let anything happen to her. She was too important.
===
“Well, that was mildly unexpected,” Mary said with a small smile.
Azrael sighed at the look the Lord gave him. “I’ll see to him.”
Michael frowned and stepped forward. “He’s my pupil,” he said to Azrael.
The Angel of Death simply smiled at the Arch Angel. “Be that as it may, he respects me. Your dislike of his mother does not help your relationship with him.” Even Michael couldn’t argue with that and he let it go. Azrael bowed to the Lord and His mother and left the garden. A few timeless moments later he’d left Heaven and was coasting on those black wings towards the surface of the Earth. It didn’t take him long to find Seth, relieved to see the boy had sense enough not to use his honorary wings. Instead, he was riding furiously on his bike towards the small town.
He swooped down to the ground and came to a stop a few yards in front of Seth. The boy nearly crashed trying to stop himself in time, finally jerking the bike around sideways and sliding to a halt.
“Get out of my way, crow!” he cried at Azrael.
“She’s not your charge, Seth,” Azrael replied calmly.
“She’s my sister!”
“But not your responsibility anymore. Have you forgotten so soon, child? You were given those wings and a second chance with the understanding that you would hold the position of Guardian to which ever life you were assigned.”
“I know that!” Seth yelled, and he knew what it all meant, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“Zelda isn’t your charge. You cannot risk your life for her. If you die for her, you will never come back,” Azrael explained gently.
Slowly, the fight left Seth and he sighed. “Fine. I understand.” Ice blue eyes lifted to meet Azrael’s gaze and his voice went cold. “But she had better not die.”
The angel smiled and said, “We all die sometime. Luckily God still has great things planned for your sister.”
===
The haze was slow in clearing from her eyes, but finally she was able to see again. Very quickly she wished she couldn’t. Below her she could see the whole school gathered on the athletic fields beside the school – but nothing below her feet. Her eyes at once widened and she let out a screech of fear.
“Shut-up!”
She jerked her head up at the sound of the voice from behind her. As the fog lifted from her mind, she realized her situation. A rope was coiled tightly around her waist and chest, binding her arms painfully to her sides. That rope was suspended from the flagpole that jutted out from the roof of the main school building. That left her dangling fifty feet in the air. She did her best not to think about the fact that with a breeze, everyone below could see up her skirt. That was the least of her worries, even if it were the most embarrassing.
She turned her head to look back at the roof. Standing there with a pocketknife in hand was a young, tough-looking man in an orange jumpsuit. An escaped convict, she realized. Her mouth suddenly went dry. She was a hostage.
“Don’t look at me! I’ll cut the rope, I swear it!” He was desperate, and scared it seemed. His face was scarred, with a few fresh scabs on his cheeks, and his hands were bandaged.
She turned her eyes away, granting his wish, though she wouldn’t remain quiet. “You won’t cut the rope. Or, at the very least, you shouldn’t.”
“And why not, you little smartass?”
“Because I’m your only ticket off this roof,” she said calmly. She was actually rather surprised at how calm she was able to speak; she was terrified inside, but she didn’t even shake.
“I could still jump,” he said with a snarl.
“But that would defeat the whole purpose, wouldn’t it? You ran away because you were afraid to die, didn’t you?”
He was silent at first, then, “So what?”
It was then she realized that he wanted to talk.
“What happened?” she asked softly, gaze drifting over her shoulder to look at him again. He didn’t protest this time.
In the ten minutes it took for the Kyoto Police to arrive on the scene, the man told her his story. He’d killed two little girls while high. He’d felt so awful about it afterwards that he pled guilty to the charges of murder, and because of his cooperation in taking down the man who’d sold him the drugs, the lawyers had promised him protection while serving out his prison sentence. But that protection fell through when the lawyer he’d worked with had been taken off the case. It hadn’t taken long for the rest of the prisoners to find out he’d sold out a dealer, and on top of that was a kid killer. He escaped for his life, and was desperate not to be sent back.
“I’ll help you,” Zelda said, though she didn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. By the look on the man’s face, he didn’t believe them, either.
“And just how do you propose to do that?” he asked with venom in his voice. She could see it in his eyes that he thought she was making fun of him, belittling him. She had to fix that quickly.
“I’ll negotiate for you.” She turned her gaze down to the line of cops that were forming around the perimeter of the school. But there were more than cops and students. There was a crowd of other people, and more than one news van. “Here, out in the open. I’ll make them promise. They wouldn’t dare go back on it with TV coverage and so many civilian witnesses.”
When she looked back at him, she saw that she’d redeemed herself in his eyes, and he was actually looking at her with hope. Something about that look in his eyes warmed her heart. “Will you trust me?” she asked him gently.
“I must be crazy,” he said quietly, “but I will. I don’t have much to lose.”
He had a great deal to lose; that was why she was doing this. But she kept that little opinion to herself. Her gaze returned to the ground and she picked up her voice. “Heeey!”
That got everyone’s attention quickly enough. A policeman with a megaphone moved out into the open and spoke up at them. “Miss, remain calm! We’re going to get you down!”
“I’m fine!” she yelled back, and she had to refrain from laughing at the look of surprise on the man’s face she could make out even from fifty feet up. “Are you the negotiator?” she called down to him.
He seemed confused at first, but finally nodded and spoke into the megaphone again. “That’s right. I’m Tokio. Are you speaking for Udo Toriyama?”
“I’m not speaking for him, no,” she yelled down. “My name is Zelda Kolareny, and I am speaking on his behalf.”
The hushed crowd began to roar as everyone tried to understand what she was implying. But Tokio knew it right away, she could tell. And he didn’t like it. “Do you understand your situation, Miss Kolareny?”
“I do, completely. You know I do. And I accept it.”
Tokio’s face became grave. Perhaps he thought she had some kind of death wish, or that she’d helped plan this man’s escape. She would have to be careful in how she handled this.
“What does he want?” he finally asked.
“What he was promised,” Zelda replied calmly.
“And what was that?”
“He wants to live out his sentence without the fear of being killed.”
Another silence. He was listening to an earpiece, she realized. Making sure he had jurisdiction, probably. She shook off the thoughts when he raised the megaphone. “He’s willing to come back to jail?”
“More than willing. He wants to serve out his sentence. He’s sorry for what he’s done, and the pain he’s caused. But he does not want to die. And he doesn’t deserve to.”
===
“She’s a clever girl,” said a particularly beautiful angel standing in the garden as Azrael returned. A Seraph.
Azrael reclaimed his place near the Lord’s right hand. “Of course, Elbereth. What did you expect from the daughter of your chosen?”
The Seraph laughed musically. “It has little to do with me, my crow, and plenty to do with the Father’s favor in her.”
Mary smiled to them, ever amused by the sibling-like bickering that tended to pass between the angels of the Father’s Court. “It was impressive, nonetheless. That young man will live now.”
“He will also be converted,” Jesus said with a light heart. “The first of many for this Apostle.”
Those gathered turned their eyes to him, this little revelation a bit of a surprise to them. “That is her station, then?” Azrael asked.
“A prophet to the new age,” Mary said softly.
===
A week had passed since the incident, and Zelda was once again kneeling in the darkened Church after school. She felt more at peace than ever before.
Her eyes slowly drifted open. “Well now. It’s been a while.”
“Hello, Zelda,” came a silky voice from the pew behind her.
She slipped back onto the pew and turned. Quiet blue eyes rested on the ravishingly handsome face of a man dressed in a black suit with a silk red shirt under the unbuttoned jacket. A small smile rested on her lips. “Hello, Lucipher.”
